Image via WikipediaThe Globe and Mail has finally realised that placing its best online content behind subscriber walls is a bad idea.
The newspaper has scrapped its subscription program, freeing up access to its columnists, horoscopes and more.
The question is why it took the Globe and Mail so long to decide that content wants to be free on the Internet. After all, the New York Times dropped its TimesSelect experiment in September.
As Christopher Flavelle makes a good point in The Walrus:
But now that the country’s largest paper has freed itself from the delusion of charging for content, maybe it can turn its attention to producing the same killer applications that make today’s NYtimes.com so good. If not, the Globe should start hiring people who can. Because here’s the rub, Mr. Greenspon: Free isn’t good enough anymore. I can get free anywhere. I want to be captivated.
But it looks like the Globe hasn’t quite given up on the idea of charging for content. It has introduced a new paid product called Globe Plus has been launched. The paper is hoping people will be willing to pay for access to its archives, as well as to investor tools.
There is a third component of this paid product, an electronic edition of the print edition of the newspaper. The idea is it “allows users to browse the newspaper as if they have it in their hands”.
This is an odd offering as if I wanted to access the print edition, I would just pick up a paper copy, rather than read a PDF version on a computer screen.
PDF versions of newspapers have been less than successful. The Toronto Star abandoned its Star P.M. afternoon edition in October.
It is puzzling that the Globe is investing in replicating print in digital format, rather than putting money innovative journalism online.
(Cross-post from Newslab.ca)
Filed under: internet, journalism, newspapers , Canada, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Walrus
